seems ever after to have been considered as an official appendage to this station. Pitt conceiving that the British colonies could never be deemed secure while the French were in possession of Canada, at length formed the plan of stripping Louis XV. of that extensive province. To this he was incited by other motives, dictated by the interests of commerce; for the trading in peltry would then be monopolized by Great Britain, the Northern fisheries would entirely appertain to her,—and her fleets of merchantmen would be enabled to pass in safety to and from their destined ports without the dread of being picked up by the enemy's cruisers. The inhabitants of that part of the colonies called 'the Middle States,' were in particular anxious for the conquest of Canada; they considered their future safety as intimately connected with the success of this measure; or, if we are to credit the conjectures of some, a few enlightened natives of the Transatlantic continent already perceived that it would tend not a little to promote their future independence. It was accordingly determined in 1759, that General Amherst, at the head of 12,000 men, should penetrate into the interior by means of the lakes, make himself master of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, establish a naval force in the Champlain, descend by means of the Sorel which empties itself into the St Lawrence, and attack the capital; while General Wolfe and Admiral Saunders were to enter the same river at its confluence with the sea, and co-operate in the reduction of Quebec. This plan was admirably calculated for success; but, like all projects of a complex nature, it proved exceedingly difficult in the execution.

The commander-in-chief having set out with one of the best-appointed armies that had ever been beheld in North America, arrived on the 24th of July before Ticonderoga, which he found abandoned and set on fire by the enemy. It was necessary, however, to overcome the French flotilla on Lake Champlain; a large garrison was at the same time to be reduced in the Isle aux Noix, which was fortified by means of a formidable train of artillery. In order to oppose these with effect, it was necessary to build a little fleet. Accordingly a brigantine, a sloop, and a radeau, were put upon the stocks and completed with wonderful celerity; and on the 11th of October the whole armament was ready to begin the expedition. But after some slight success, the sudden approach of winter in those northern regions checked their proceedings for a time. In short, it appears that they were too late by a couple of months in commencing so formidable an enterprise. It was therefore determined to return to Crown Point, to put it in a state of defence, and to prepare to set out early in the spring to complete the original plan. In the meantime the gallant Wolfe had appeared before Quebec, and although unsupported by the grand army, on the plains of Abraham gained a battle which decided his own fate and that of Canada, of which he alone can be justly termed the conqueror.

The main object of the expedition having been thus achieved by means of a mere detachment, it now only remained to attain a naval superiority on Lake Champlain, to take possession of and occupy its principal island, and then to seize on Montreal. To accomplish these designs no less than three small armies were put in motion: one from Quebec, where the English flag was now flying, under General Murray, --another from Crown Point, under Colouel, afterwards General Havi

land,-while the commander-in-chief was to cross the Ontario, enter the St Lawrence, and take possession of Montreal, the only place of any note then appertaining to France. All this was effected. On the 8th of September, 1760, the French general capitulated on condition of' being sent home with his troops.

General Amherst remained in America until 1763, when he returned home. In 1761 he had been presented with one of the first ribands of the bath which his majesty had to bestow, and about the same time he was also appointed governor of Virginia. On September 21st, 1768, he was suddenly dismissed from all his employments. So sudden and unexpected a disgrace is said to have ensued in consequence of his attachment to the great commoner of that day who was then out of place. This eclipse, however, was of very short duration, for he was soon readmitted to favour, and received fresh marks of the royal bounty. In short, he was not only reappointed to the command of the 60th, which had been conferred on General Gage, but also nominated to the 3d regiment of foot, and declared the head of the staff of Great Britain, in consequence of which the army at home was placed under his control. In 1771 he was appointed to the lucrative government of Guernsey : and in the course of the next year became lieutenant general of the ordnance. Having resigned the latter in favour of General Howe, he was recompensed, on the death of Lord Harrington, with the 2d troop of grenadier guards; and on the demise of Lord Cadogan he obtained the 2d troop of horse-guards On the reduction of the latter, he had the 2d regiment of horse-guards conferred upon him. On May 20th, 1776, he was created Baron Amherst of Holmesdale in Kent, with remainder to his nephew, the son of a younger brother. In the meantime his interest and credit at court seemed to increase daily. In 1778 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army of England; and in 1779 he was made colonel of the 2d troop of life-guards. In consequence of the re-establishment of the staff he was once more appointed commander-in-chief of the army of Great Britain, January 23d, 1793, which was considered as an injustice to General Conway, the oldest officer in the service, and to whom the situation of course appertained by seniority. It is also said to have given great offence to others who had been longer on the establishment than himself, one of whom was of the blood-royal.

It being at length determined to confide the command of the army to his royal highness the duke of York, his majesty's second son, a resignation on the part of his lordship was expected, and he had the offer of an earl's coronet on this occasion, which he declined; but on the 30th of July, 1796, he accepted the rank of field-marshal. His lordship's increasing age and infirmities had rendered him unfit for public business nearly two years before this period, and he now retired to his seal at Montreal in Kent-so called after the town of the same name in Canada-where he died on the 3d of August, 1797, in the eighty-first year of his age.

As an officer Amherst was bold, intrepid, and enterprising, a strick disciplinarian, but the friend of merit. He was also remarked for the simplicity of his manners, and may very properly be termed a sagacious, rather than a great general. When the American war began to assume a serious aspect, he was invited to repair to the transatlantic continent,

and assume the chief command; but he gave a decisive proof of his discretion by refusing to take the field with less than 30,000 men. Νο Englishman was better acquainted with the colonies and the disposition and genius of their inhabitants. While serving on that station he had conceived the idea of an American peerage, or order of aristocracy, to continue during life only; and he himself, had this taken place, was to have been created a peer of that description, with precedence of all others. Several other schemes of internal regulation were also suggest ed by him, but not adopted. As commander-in-chief in Great Britain, he was accused of sacrificing the army to patronage; and during his continuance in office it was jocularly observed, that there were many of his colonels still at school. As a legislator he generally voted with the minister of the day; and notwithstanding he had been brought forward by the popular interest, he constantly sided, during the latter period of his life, with the party who affected to denominate themselves the king's friends.' In private life his character stood high. He lived within his income, detested ostentation, dressed in a plain garb, and was free and affable in his communication with society.

John Wilkes.

BORN A. D. 1727.-DIED A. D. 1797.

JOHN WILKES was born in St John's-street, Clerkenwell, London, October 28th, 1727. He received the rudiments of his education in the town of Hertford. After some stay there he was removed into Buckinghamshire, where he was placed under a private tutor of dissenting principles, who afterwards accompanied him to the continent. Having attained considerable eminence in classical literature—to which he was devoted during the whole course of his life-young Wilkes was sent to Leyden, where it was intended that he should finish his studies. While in Holland he formed an acquaintance with the ingenious Andrew Baxter;' and such was Mr Baxter's esteem for his young friend, that he dedicated one of his publications to him, and carried on a friendly intercourse by letter until his death, which occurred in 1750.

After residing a considerable time abroad, and visiting several parts of Germany, Wilkes returned to his native country, and married Miss Mead, heiress to the Meads of Buckinghamshire, with whom he got a considerable fortune, which, like that of his own family, had been acquired in trade. He now settled at Aylesbury, and being, in consequence of the whig principles in which he was educated, a warm advocate for the establishment of a militia, as a constitutional balance to a standing army, he accepted of a commission in the regiment raised in the county of Bucks. After serving some time in the capacity of lieu tenant-colonel, he became colonel on the resignation of Sir Thomas Dashwood, afterwards Lord de Despencer, who observed in his farewell letter to the officers, "If the succession goes in the regiment—as I hope it will, and think it ought-then I must add, my successor is a

'Author of a work entitled An Enquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul, wherein its Immateriality is evinced from the Principles of Reason and Philosophy; and also of Matho; sive Cosmotheoria puerilis, Dialogus.'

man of spirit, good sense, parts, and civil deportment, who has shown resolution and industry in putting this salutary measure into execution. Wilkes commenced his political career at the general election in 1754. On the 16th of April that year, we find him offering himself for the representation of Berwick. In his address to the electors he emphatically observed: "I come here uncorrupting, and I promise you I shall ever be uncorrupted. As I never will take a bribe, so I never will offer one. I should think myself totally unworthy," adds he, "of the great and important trust I am now soliciting, if I sought to obtain it by the violation of the laws of my country, which I hold sacred." On this occasion he polled 192 votes, but proved unsuccessful. He was soon after, however, elected for Aylesbury, in the room of Mr Potter; and on the dissolution of that parliament in 1761, was once more returned for the same place.

During Pitt's administration the nation was united at home and formidable abroad; but no sooner did that great commoner retire, than a formidable party arose in opposition to the measures of Lord Bute, who soon became equally obnoxious to the nobility and the people. Wilkes, who had given his most strenuous support to all the measures of the former minister, attacked his successor with uncommon zeal. The nobleman in question, aware that the nation was jealous of his authority and suspicious of his designs, employed a number of writers to support his own cause, and blacken the principles, characters, and conduct of his opponents. The member for Aylesbury had already publicly displayed his hostility to the thane,' in 'Observations on the papers relative to a rupture with Spain;' but he now prepared to inflict more severe and lasting marks of his enmity. On June 5th, 1762, he published the first number of The North Briton;' and, whether from the odium already attached to the minister, or the keen satire and happy wit of the author, or the lucky union of both, certain it is, that no periodical work, antecedent to that period, was ever in such request. Its effect on the public mind, and the future fortune of the writer, were alike conspicuous; for it is supposed to have been one of the efficient causes of the overthrow of the Bute administration, and it involved Wilkes not only in many public prosecutions, but also in many private disputes. On the appearance of No. 45 of that paper, a general warrant3 was issued, under the hand and seal of the earl of Halifax, one of his majes ty's secretaries of state, for the apprehension of the printers and publishers. Accordingly, on the evening of the 29th of April, 1763, several messengers arrested the person and entered the house of Mr

"This contest cost him between 3 and £4000; and, with the larger expenses of his Aylesbury election, plunged him in difficulties from which he never completely extri cated himself.

The following is a copy of this celebrated instrument :

L. S.

"George Montague Dunk, earl of Halifax, Viscount Sunbury, &c.

"These are in his majesty's name, to authorize and require you-taking a constable to your assistance to make strict and diligent search after the AUTHORS, PRINTERS, and PUBLISHERS, of a seditious and treasonable paper, entitled The North Briton, No. 45, Saturday, April 23d, 1763,' printed for George Kearsley, Ludgate St. London, and them or any of them having found, to apprehend and seize, together with their papers, and to bring in safe custody before me, &c.

"TO NATHAN CARRINGTON, &c.

(Signed,)

DUNK HALIFAX."

Wilkes, in Great George-street, Westminster; but he objected to the equivocal terms in which their authority was drawn up, and refused compliance. On this they departed, but returned next morning; and, on intimation of force being about to be recurred to, he at length proceeded in a chair to the secretary of state's office, where he underwent an examination, during which he denied the authority of general warrants, and was soon afterwards conducted close prisoner to the Tower, all his papers having been previously seized and rifled, and his will broken open and read. In the mean time, application being made by the prisoner's friends to the court of common pleas, an habeas corpus was issued to the constable of the Tower, in consequence of which Mr Wilkes was brought up next day to Westminster-hall, and remanded until Friday, May 6th, that the judges might have leisure to form their opinion. On that day he accordingly appeared once more at the bar, and addressed the judges in the following speech:-" My lords, far be it from me to regret that I have passed so many more days in captivity, as it will have afforded you an opportunity of doing, upon mature reflection and repeated examination, the more signal justice to my country. The liberty of all peers and gentlemen, and what touches me more sensibly, that of all the middling and inferior class of people, who stand most in need of protection, is in my case this day to be finally decided upon;—a question of such importance as to determine at once whether English liberty be a reality or a shadow. Your own free-born hearts will feel with indignation and compassion all that load of oppression under which I have so long laboured. Close imprisonment, the effect of premeditated malice, all access for more than two days denied to me, my house ransacked and plundered, my most private and secret concerns divulged, every vile and malignant insinuation, even of high treason itself, no less industriously than falsely circulated by my cruel and implacable enemies, together with all the various insolence of office, form but a part of my unexampled ill-treatment. Such inhuman principles of star-chamber tyranny will, I trust, by this court, upon this solemn occasion, be finally extirpated; and henceforth every innocent man, however poor and unsupported, may hope to sleep in peace and security in his own house, unviolated by king's messengers and the arbitrary mandates of an overbearing secretary of state. I will no longer delay your justice. The nation is impatient to hear, nor can be safe or happy till that is obtained. If the same persecution is, after all, to carry me before another court, I hope I shall find that the genuine spirit of magna charta, that glorious inheritance, that distinguishing characteristic of Englishmen, is as religiously revered there, as I know it is here, by the great personages before whom I have now the happiness to stand; and as in the ever-memorable case of the imprisoned bishops that an independent jury of free-born Englishmen will persist to determine my fate, as in conscience bound, upon constitutional principles, by a verdict of guilty or not guilty. I ask no more at the hands of my countrymen." Chief-justice Pratt, after descanting on the powers of a secretary of state, and observing that his warrant was not of superior force to that of a justice of peace, pronounced that the privilege of parliament had been violated in the person of Mr Wilkes, as it could only be forfeited by treason, felony, or breach of the peace. The pris oner was accordingly discharged amidst the plaudits of a crowded court.